Looters plunder wrecks in the 'graveyard' of the Atlantic

Divers are plundering the wrecks of British vessels sunk during the Second
World War in an area known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic".

Most of the ships were sunk during the first half of 1942 when the Nazis took their U-boat offensive right up to the US coastPhoto: NOAA

By Jasper Copping

5:42PM BST 02 Aug 2008

Merchant ships and Royal Navy vessels are among the wrecks lying off the coast of America which were sunk by German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic.

The stretch of seabed off North Carolina and Virginia contains up to 90 wrecks, most lying at relatively shallow depths, offering divers and maritime historians unique opportunities for exploration.

However, experts have warned that the wrecks are increasingly being disturbed by divers, some of whom are removing items to keep as souvenirs.

Weapons and other artefacts have been looted and divers are even said to have removed the skeleton of a German sailor from a sunken U-boat in the area.

On one British wreck, the remains of a sailor who went down with his ship have recently been exposed by the seabed's shifting sands and historians are concerned they could be targeted by souvenir hunters.

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A major new project has now been launched to survey the wrecks and conduct an inventory of the items that have been stripped from them and to help protect what is left.

Most of the ships were sunk during the first half of 1942 when the Nazis took their U-boat offensive right up to the US coast.

The campaign, which started with Operation Paukenshlag (Drumbeat), was successful for the Germans, who called the period the Second Happy Time, after an earlier phase of Allied sinkings.

Initially, there was no convoy system and little protection given to the British and American merchant ships which travelled up the coast alone from the Gulf of Mexico before assembling further north to cross the Atlantic in large numbers.

The U-boats were able to pick off ships in daylight, or at night when they were illuminated by lights from the shore. The waters off North Carolina were named "Torpedo Junction".

Among those sunk was HMT Bedfordshire, a British fishing trawler converted for anti-submarine warfare, which was part of the Royal Naval Patrol Service.

The unit's makeshift nature saw it nicknamed "Churchill's Pirates" or "Harry Tate's Navy", using a phrase from the time to suggest amateurism.

The Bedfordshire was one of 24 armed trawlers sent to the US to combat the U-boat threat but on May 11, 1942, she was struck by a torpedo and sent to the bottom with the loss of all crew, thought to number 37.

The wreck is about 12 miles offshore in about 60ft of water and is one of the wrecks thought to have been looted.

Joseph Hoyt, a maritime archaeologist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is conducting the new survey, said: "I move in diving community circles and I know that things have been moved off the Bedfordshire.

Most divers want to go out and enjoy the sites and experience the history, but because these sites are so small and are not renewable, it doesn't take much of a minority to have a very visible and long-lasting impact."

Four bodies washed up on the shore after the ship sunk, but the others went down with the ship. Human remains have been seen by divers this year and there are fears the site could be desecrated.

Mr Hoyt added: "A lot of divers, if they find a skull, or remains, will decide that others want to see it, so will move it out and bring it up on deck, without realising it is extremely disrespectful.

"These sorts of things are definite cause for some formal investigation. The main goal of our project is to get a handle on what is there and how we can prevent these war graves from being disturbed any further."

He added: "It is really common for items to be removed. If there is a site that is being dived, then stuff is missing. There are a few British sites that we will be looking at that we have heard from the local diving community about potentially being disturbed."

One of the bodies washed up during the war, and now buried in a small cemetery in North Carolina, was Sub Lieutenant Tom Cunningham.

His son, 65, from near Knutsford, in Cheshire and also called Tom, said: "I don't want the ship pulled apart by bounty hunters. I know there have already been things removed but as far as I am concerned, it is a war grave."

The project, which will run for several years, has already seen researchers dive onto the wrecks of three U-boats in the area, U-85, U-352 and U-701.

The team found several items had been removed, including hatches, periscopes and antennae, and divers have been able to get inside two of the wrecks. There are persistent rumours among local divers that human remains of a sailor have been removed.

Next year, the study will focus on Allied wrecks, including the Bedfordshire. Other British wrecks expected to be surveyed are the armed trawlers Kingston Ceylonite and Senateur Duhamel as well as the merchant vessels Empire Gem and the British Splendour.

David Alberg, who is leading the project, said: "The vast majority of divers just go to see, but it doesn't take more than a handful to do a lot of damage.

"They are going to a grave and looting material from a grave. It is a level of selfishness that I find almost unfathomable. We can clearly see the evidence of the impact. These are memorials to all who served in World War Two.

"When you disturb them, it is an insult to anyone who gave their life to serve in the conflict."

Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Musuems, said: "We don't want to stop people going down, but we want them to leave them alone, not to use a hacksaw or cutting torch to remove the periscopes, deck guns, valves and not to start pulling bodies and skeletal remains out."

Until four years ago, it was permitted to remove things from wrecks more than 12 miles from the US coast. However, they are now protected, although people can visit.